10 budget-friendly heat protectant hairsprays you need in your kit

The general frizz, flyaways and unruliness that accompanies your hair during hot and humid weathers may have you wanting to reach for the hair straightener or curling iron more often than you’d like. But it’s important to remember that excessive heat styling tools absorb all the moisture from your hair, due to high temperatures and heavy pressure, and leave your strands brittle and dry. As your hair overheats, it can break and cause permanent hair loss and hair fall in the process. It can lead to a breakdown of the keratin proteins that give hair its elasticity and strength, and may even change the pigments in your mane (so bleached hair can get brassy).

One way to be smart about using heat styling tools is to add a heat protectant spray to your haircare routine. Heat protectant sprays are vitamin-infused agents including silicone (cyclomethicone and dimethicone) as the key ingredient, which form a protective barrier over your cuticle against any excessive heat. This haircare product is like sunscreen for your hair—the vitamins and fatty acids in the spray not only provide additional moisture to the strands, but also slow down heat conduction. This means that the heat is applied evenly over the entire head of hair, causing less damage. In addition to just protecting hair from hot tools, most formulas add volume, shine and moisture, reduce frizz and seal cuticles.

Most heat protectant sprays can be applied on both damp or dry hair before using a styling tool. Divide your hair into sections, use a comb to detangle any knots, and spritz the spray evenly from the roots to the ends. If you are applying a heat protectant spray on dry hair, be sure to let the formula dry out properly before you move forward. Using a heat tool on damp hair can cause it to sizzle, essentially steaming out the strands or, in the worst case scenario, burning through them. Scroll through our edit of the best budget-friendly heat protectant sprays you can look towards to protect your mane.